Augustin Deleanu

Augustin Pax "Coco" Deleanu (23 August 1944 – 27 March 2014) was a Romanian footballer, who played as a left back.

Club career

File:C.S.M.S. Iași 1965.jpg

Deleanu (back row, third from the left) with Poli Iași in 1965

Augustin Pax Deleanu, nicknamed "Coco" was born on 23 August 1944 in Măgurele, Romania and started to play football in 1960 at the junior squads of Steaua București. He made his Divizia A debut on 24 November 1963, playing for Politehnica Iași in a 1–0 victory against Petrolul Ploiești. He spent six seasons at Politehnica, a period in which the club had a relegation to Divizia B, but he stayed with the team, helping it gain promotion back to the first league after one season.

In 1968, he went to play for Dinamo București where his first performances was reaching two Cupa României finals in 1970 and 1971, playing all the minutes in both which were lost in front of rivals Steaua București. He won three league titles with The Red Dogs in 1971, 1973 and 1975, in the first he contributed with three goals scored in the 27 matches he was used by coaches Nicolae Dumitru and Traian Ionescu, in the second he played 23 games under the guidance of Ion Nunweiller and in the third he made 33 appearances while working once again with Dumitru. He spent seven seasons at Dinamo in which he appeared in 16 matches in European competitions (including four in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup).

In 1976, Deleanu went to play for Jiul Petroșani where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 30 June 1977 in a 2–0 loss in front of Universitatea Craiova, having a total of 325 matches played and 18 goals scored in the competition.

International career

File:Augustin Deleanu México 70.png

Deleanu with Romania

Deleanu played 25 games without scoring for Romania, making his debut on 26 November 1966 under coach Ilie Oană in a 3–1 loss in front of Italy at the 1968 Euro qualifiers, where he would also make his second appearance for the national team in a 5–1 victory against Cyprus. He played four games at the successful 1970 World Cup qualifiers, being selected by coach Angelo Niculescu to be part of the squad for the final tournament where he did not play. He played five matches at the 1972 Euro qualifiers, managing to reach the quarter-finals where Romania was defeated by Hungary, who advanced to the final tournament. Augustin Deleanu played a total of five matches at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers, including his last appearance for the national team which took place on 14 October 1973 in Romania's biggest ever victory, a 9–0 against Finland.

For representing his country at the 1970 World Cup, Deleanu was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.

After retirement

After he ended his playing career, Deleanu became a referee, arbitrating matches in Romania's top-league Divizia A and had different administration positions at Dinamo București, between 1990 and 1994 being the vice-president of the club.

Death

Deleanu died on 27 March 2014, at the age of 69 at Floreasca Hospital in Bucharest.

Honours

Politehnica Iași

• Divizia B: 1967–68

Dinamo București

• Divizia A: 1970–71, 1972–73, 1974–75
• Cupa României: runner-up 1969–70, 1970–71

External links

• Template:NFT
• Template:WorldFootball.net